New Delhi: The ‘black box’ of Air India Ahmedabad-London flight that crashed on June 12 has suffered heavy damage and may have to be sent to the US for the data extraction process. The black box of an aircraft records the cockpit conversations and data to engine and control settings which help in ascertaining the cause of the crash.

The London-bound Air India plane with 242 people on board crashed into BJ Medical College compound, within seconds of taking off from Ahmedabad airport. Of the 242 people, only one passenger survived the crash. The aircraft made a mayday call before the crash.

The post-crash fire caused severe damage to the black box of the Air India’s Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner plane, making it difficult for the investigators in India to extract data. The recorded is likely to be sent to the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington DC for inspection, sources said, adding that the government will take the final call.

The government’s high-level multi-disciplinary committee probing the June 12 crash briefed the Civil Aviation Ministry on Wednesday and gave detailed information about the incident and the current status of the investigation.

The committee made a formal presentation informing the ministry that they are committed to complete the investigation within 90 days. So far, the committee has not given any information about the black box data or any preliminary cause of the accident.

The black box of the ill-fated Air India flight was recovered on Monday, 28 hours after the crash. The ‘black box’ consists of two devices – the Cockpit Voice Recorder, or CVR, and the Flight Data Recorder, or FDR. While the CVR records pilots’ conversation and any distress signal made before crash, FDR stores information to engine and control settings. Both devices are designed to survive a crash.